Archives for 2017

Through a grant from the Massachusetts Office for Victim Assistance (MOVA), we are excited to offer a series of FREE 2-day trainings around the state, Supporting Survivor Wellbeing: The Five Domains of Wellbeing. The trainings are designed for staff and volunteers at community-based organizations serving survivors of violence across the commonwealth. Over the two-days, training attendees will increase their knowledge of the codified, evidence-informed Five Domains of Wellbeing framework as the cornerstone of supporting survivor wellbeing.

Training goals include:

Increase understanding of the Five Domains of Wellbeing, as a framework and approach for supporting wellbeing

Understand how balancing tradeoffs informs decision-making and change

Begin to see how minimizing tradeoffs can support change that lasts

Practice identifying assets, challenges and tradeoffs with a Five Domains of Wellbeing lens, in our own lives and the lives of others, including survivors of sexual and domestic violence

“I wanted to thank you again for the two day training, Supporting Survivor Wellbeing. I haven’t stopped looking at life through the Five Domains of Wellbeing lens, and I was even able to reference some of the domains in conversation while at work. The approach helps advocates redirect the priorities of their counseling and advocacy, and center the lives and needs of survivors in the programs. My colleague and I truly benefited from the training and have been positively influenced.”

The schedule of trainings is as follows, with each day running from 9 am until 4 pm. There is a registration limit of 30 people per training. Priority will be given to those from organizations that work with survivors of sexual and domestic violence.

If you’d like be notified about the upcoming trainings as they are scheduled, or would like other information about these events, please e-mail Lotus Yu.

Supporting Survivor Wellbeing: The Five Domains of WellbeingDates and locations, 2017-2018:

Please let us know of any accommodation, interpretation or translation needs you may have for this training, and please be as specific as possible. Every effort will be made to accommodate advance requests; on-site requests cannot be guaranteed. Reasonable accommodations will be provided during the training. Please contact lotus@fullframeinitiative.org with any questions or for more assistance.

This project is supported by the Massachusetts Office for Victim Assistance through a Victims of Crime Act of 1984 (VOCA) grant from the Office for Victims of Crime, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice.

“Today I’m leaving with a new concept of asking what is going well. So many times clients are sharing all that is going wrong and we’re not in the habit of talking about the positive things or assets they may have in each domain.” —From participant evaluation comments

“Today I was reminded of the importance of non-judgement and accepting people where they are, because their tradeoffs are not always what we see, or even what we expect.”—From participant evaluation comments

With a tumultuous year ending, we all need a reason to feel genuinely hopeful. You may not find it on the news or in the headlines, but you can find it in a growing number of communities across our country if you know where to look.

It starts with a boy named with Marcus.

Marcus’s school recorded him as absent 28 out of the last 30 days of school. Already on the court’s radar screen for truancy, he was on the verge of being expelled.Far more often than not, when kids like Marcus are court ordered to attend school, the assumption is they don’t value education. For kids that don’t—or can’t—comply, the result is they end up advancing in the justice system, not the educational system.

But FFI is in partnership with the court that oversees Marcus’s case, working with court personnel to improve outcomes for youth and families by focusing on wellbeing. So the court officer worked to understand the tradeoffs Marcus faced around going to school. And here’s what she found out:

Marcus’s mom worked nights, which meant she couldn’t put her kids on the bus in the morning.

Marcus’s little sister’s bus came after his.

Marcus felt it wasn’t safe for his little sister to wait alone for the bus, so he stayed with her, then walked to school.

Marcus hadn’t missed 28 days of school—he was late, but most days, still going.

Marcus wanted to go to school, but he wasn’t willing to tradeoff his sister’s safety, and his mother couldn’t afford not to work. This wasn’t a kid indifferent to education; this was a kid who valued his responsibilities to the people he loved.

From this different understanding comes a completely different response.

Instead of simply explaining to Marcus he has to get to school on time or face additional consequences, the court officer worked with Marcus’s family to find a trusted neighbor who would wait with his little sister until the bus came. Now Marcus can catch his bus each morning, and be on time for school.

This is what it means to shift our focus from fixing problems to fostering wellbeing—the needs and experiences essential for health and hope. This is what takes us from seeing a dropout to seeing a whole person, with a unique mix of challenges and strengths. This is the reason Marcus gets to go on in school, and not in the justice system.

Because shifting our focus to foster wellbeing changes everything. It changes systems. It changes communities. It changes how we see each other and treat each other.

Think what could happen if a change like this went viral. Imagine if fostering wellbeing was the new charge for all the systems working with the quarter of a million juvenile justice-involved youth (systems where kids and families of color are disproportionately represented by more than twofold). Now imagine bringing this focus on wellbeing to the 400,000 kids in the child welfare system, and the millions of families grappling with challenges of poverty, violence, trauma and oppression every day.

Together with a growing cohort of pioneering systems, nonprofits and communities, FFI is spreading this new way of seeing and responding across the country. And with this, FFI is sparking broader change that is replacing poverty, violence, trauma and oppression with wellbeing, equity and justice.

That’s a pretty great reason to be hopeful for the year ahead.

From improved law-abiding rates in juvenile justice systems, to changes in how domestic violence survivors are seen and helped in programs, to state funding in Massachusetts and Missouri specifically focused on increasing wellbeing, to a partnership community in St. Louis working to increase access to wellbeing for children—it’s real, lasting change.

Individuals and foundations—allies like you—fund two-thirds of FFI’s change efforts. You are the reason we’ve been able to continue our collaboration with the St. Louis courts, and make a difference in the lives of kids like Marcus. You are the reason other communities are taking notice, getting inspired and proving what’s possible—for individuals, families, systems and society as a whole. Thank you.

So be hopeful. Be a changemaker. And be generous. Because FFI can’t do its part without you.

I have been working in the anti domestic violence movement for over 20 years. I came to this work to support women and children who were experiencing domestic and sexual violence. As a young feminist, I held strong and unwavering beliefs about violence against women and girls. I was steadfast and thought I had it all figured out. Victims good, abusers bad. This binary shaped everything I thought and believed, as well as my actions. I had a zero tolerance approach and believed that the solution was simple. Help women and children leave the abusive relationship and start completely anew, and lock up the abuser. I believed that abusive behavior was explained simply and completely by a misuse of male privilege, power and control.

Twenty years later I take a deep breath and pause. And while I can love my former righteous advocate self, I have landed in a much more humble, very grey and very messy place. Hearts and minds need to grow and expand, and holding too tightly to dogma or what everyone else is thinking only keeps us from creating the change we desire.

The lived experience of those who have experienced violence is varied and diverse. The anti-violence movement, in many places, has remained steadfast, and even stuck, in a range of responses mostly designed to do what I originally got into this work to do—help survivors leave their partners, and often their communities, neighborhoods, jobs and more as a consequence. For some this is indeed the best option, but for most the right solution is more complex. The articulated values of the movement have always been to work with survivors no matter what they choose; however, we have not organized our work with real options that support all survivors’ desires and fully live up to these values.

One memorable woman (I’ll call her Kate) I worked with in supervised visitation was instrumental in opening up my thinking. Supervised visitation is a service generally for separated parents that allows the children to spend time with a parent who has caused harm to the family. It’s important to note the underlying assumption here is that parents using visitation programs are no longer in contact, and want it that way. Kate and her family had been coming to the center for months, and it seemed clear both Kate and her children were keeping a secret or had something to say but never did. I tried everything to build a relationship and understand what was happening for them, to no avail. Until one day, Kate walked into my office, sat down and started to cry. Kate explained that she and her family, including her abusive husband, were still living together. She described how she maneuvered before every visit—dropping him off, driving around for 15 minutes, then dropping off the kids—and reversing the order at the end of the visit. When I asked what she needed from us, she begged me to not kick them out, that she needed to continue the supervised visits. She told me she wasn’t ready and didn’t want to leave her husband. But the 90 minutes of respite she got every week—to take care of herself, to prepare for the week, to not worry—was the most helpful thing anyone was doing for her and critical for her safety.

This was a pivotal moment for me. First, I realized that because Kate felt afraid to tell me the truth, we spent a lot of time planning for safety risks that were not relevant and we missed opportunities to plan around her actual needs. Second, I realized that when we only see our responses or interventions through our own lens, we miss the practical and helpful ways we can support survivors on their own terms, in the ways that are most relevant to their lived experience. Lastly, and most importantly, I was reminded that our “leaving” strategies can be supportive to survivors even when they choose to stay and our most critical role is to build trust and stay open to what people actually need, not just what we think they need.

I ask myself daily some of the following questions in an effort to uncover the path needed to transform and unite the many movements working to create change and healing for individuals and families who are touched, harmed and impacted by the many forms of violence that plague our homes, communities and planet. What if the horizon we set for our movement(s) was created by a desire for healing for individuals and families? What if we really organized our work around the multitude of options that survivors want and need to feel supported? What if we considered the possibility that an approach to supporting change for those impacted by violence (both the person being harmed and the once causing it) was driven by our deep curiosity to understand what people need to feel a sense of hope and connection?

Changing the horizon to healing can change the myth that violence and relationships cleanly benefit one person while harming another; it could open up the possibility for us to understand that when violence is happening, everyone is being harmed. The harm may not be experienced similarly, but no one truly thrives when they are harming the people they care about. If we, meaning all of us working to support safety and wellbeing in our communities, held the same vision for healing, our movement would be stronger—and continue to grow and move.

As my many mentors have invited me to grow and change, my invitation to each of you working to create change and healing is to find a place in your heart and in your actions that leaves room for new and innovative ways to inform and influence our antiviolence movement. I invite those of us who have been engaged in this work for many years to listen to the new voices, to encourage and support ways of thinking that may be different or even the opposite of what we have believed over the years, find ways to hold space for new leaders who will carry the work. I invite new and exciting thinkers to be fierce, carve new paths and hold humility and gratitude for the work that has come before you. This is an urgent call to all of us. We must open our hearts and our minds to seeing all people as whole people—not just the experiences they’ve had but as people deserving a world that is built from a place of equity, compassion and genuine opportunities to choose love over hate, kindness over cruelty and healing over suffering.

Jennifer Rose has been working as an advocate and activist to end violence against women and children for the past 20 years. She currently works locally and nationally as a consultant on violence against women and girls, supervised visitation and safe exchange, engaging men who use violence, oppression, community organizing and LGBTQ issues.

Through a grant from the Massachusetts Office for Victim Assistance (MOVA), we are excited to offer a series of FREE 2-day trainings around the state, Supporting Survivor Wellbeing: The Five Domains of Wellbeing. The trainings are designed for staff and volunteers at community-based organizations serving survivors of violence across the commonwealth. Over the two-days, training attendees will increase their knowledge of the codified, evidence-informed Five Domains of Wellbeing framework as the cornerstone of supporting survivor wellbeing.

Training goals include:

Increase understanding of the Five Domains of Wellbeing, as a framework and approach for supporting wellbeing

Understand how balancing tradeoffs informs decision-making and change

Begin to see how minimizing tradeoffs can support change that lasts

Practice identifying assets, challenges and tradeoffs with a Five Domains of Wellbeing lens, in our own lives and the lives of others, including survivors of sexual and domestic violence

The schedule of trainings is as follows, with each day running from 9 am until 4 pm. There is a registration limit of 30 people per training. Priority will be given to those from organizations that work with survivors of sexual and domestic violence.

If you’d like be notified about the upcoming trainings as they are scheduled, or would like other information about these events, please e-mail Lotus Yu.

Supporting Survivor Wellbeing: The Five Domains of WellbeingDates and locations, 2017-2018:

Please let us know of any accommodation, interpretation or translation needs you may have for this training, and please be as specific as possible. Every effort will be made to accommodate advance requests; on-site requests cannot be guaranteed. Reasonable accommodations will be provided during the training. Please contact lotus@fullframeinitiative.org with any questions or for more assistance.

This project is supported by the Massachusetts Office for Victim Assistance through a Victims of Crime Act of 1984 (VOCA) grant from the Office for Victims of Crime, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice.

To commemorate the 30th anniversary of Domestic Violence Awareness Month, nearly 200 people packed an auditorium at Simmons College School of Social Work for a special event last week to launch the 3rd edition of their free online domestic violence training course. FFI’s Anna Melbin participated in a panel with other leaders in the Massachusetts domestic violence field, who were each asked to share their unique perspective on the past, present and future of the field. Anna talked about FFI’s work to increase access to wellbeing for people who experience violence, and specifically about our multi-year project in California that was focused on understanding how people who experience violence define success for themselves in their lives. The project illustrates what she’s believed since she started work in the DV field: that people—whether using or victimized by violence—are more the same than different and wellbeing, not just safety, is the key to long-term healing and hope. Anna pointed out that the mainstream DV field has historically shied away from work to truly understand what is driving violent behavior and the contexts in which it occurs, fearing that it could be perceived as excusing violence and not prioritizing accountability. Looking ahead to the future of the field, she called for change: “We’re not well practiced in holding the gray areas, and it’s limited our field of vision and possibilities for change. I believe that we’re well past due to interrupt this historical perspective; if we don’t, cycles of violence will continue, deepening the divide and the oppression and marginalization of the most vulnerable.”

Panelists with moderator Kristie Thomas, Associate Professor at Simmons College School of Social Work (far left): Linda Spears from MA Department of Children and Families, Debra Robbin from Jane Doe Inc, Quynh Dang from MA Department of Public Health, Anna Melbin from FFI, Casey Corcoran from Futures Without Violence and Anjali Fulambarker from Simmons College School of Social Work

FFI is growing and we have created a new position on our team for a Donor Relations Manager, providing high level support and project management for our strategy to dramatically increase individual philanthropic giving. The person in this position will play a pivotal role by proactively managing the donor relationship process including recruitment and cultivation of new major donors and stewardship and retention of current individual donors. The Donor Relations Manager will work closely with FFI’s Founder and CEO and the Special Assistant to the CEO. Learn more about this opportunity!

FFI is excited to announce that Forrest Moore and Raquel Hatter have joined our Board of Directors!

Forrest is a Policy Fellow at Chapin Hall and brings over 20 years of experience serving youth and their families. He specializes in designing and implementing feasible action plans to improve delivery of and outcomes associated with youth development programming, especially those focused on highly vulnerable subgroups of youth and young adults. His approach emphasizes the use of evidence in decision making and the application of implementation science principles within systems, program and practice change efforts. Forrest earned a Ph.D. in Research Methodology from Loyola University in Chicago and a BS in Organizational Leadership from the Knoy School of Technology at Purdue University.

Raquel is the Deputy Director of the Human Services Program at The Kresge Foundation and has spent nearly 30 years supporting adults, children and families, drawing on her experiences as both a clinician and an administrator to be a leader and advocate for the human services field. Raquel was awarded the 2016 American Public Human Services Association State Member Award for Transforming Human Services and the 2014 Spirit of Crazy Horse Award from Reclaiming Youth International for her service to children, youth and families. She holds a BS in clinical community psychology from the University of Michigan, an MSW from Eastern Michigan University, and an Ed.D in children, youth and family studies from Nova Southeastern University.

Board Chair Mari Brennan Barrera says, “These leaders have extensive experience and a deep commitment to social change; they will help propel FFI even further in its social change work shifting systems from fixing problems to fostering wellbeing–the needs and experiences we all need for health and hope. Raquel and Forrest bring a wealth of knowledge from their respective fields, and a passion for FFI’s broader goal to spark a movement in our country that replaces poverty, violence, trauma and oppression with wellbeing and justice. On behalf of the entire FFI board, I’m thrilled to welcome them to their new roles.”

People died in Charlottesville this past weekend. Families are planning funerals, not summer barbeques. Many more are holding vigils for those hospitalized in critical condition.

Let’s call it what it is.

White supremacy. Domestic terrorism. Pre-meditated hate.

It’s shameful. Excruciating. More or less shocking, depending on the frequency of oppressions any one of us endures.

What would have happened if an Ohio man hadn’t weaponized a car? Heather Heyer would be alive, and many more would not be hospitalized.

And I wonder if everything else in Charlottesville in the last 24 hours would have sparked outrage. Would a Twitter rainbow have coalesced as it did last night?

I want to believe it would have. And the evidence suggests the opposite.

Beyond the 20 year-old driver who murdered a woman standing up for America— older, cannier, no-hoods-needed-anymore white supremacists know how to dog whistle to the country without provoking the bipartisan (sans presidential) rebukes now pouring in. White supremacists know how to make complicity into Velcro. Their walk-the-line, silencing assaults hit their intended targets—blacks, Latinos, Jews and others—daily. They are insidious and corrosive. They are crystal clear.

So let’s also be crystal clear.

Oppression makes it impossible for people to access the ingredients of health and hope. Cells age faster. Immune systems go haywire. Constant stress distorts metabolism. People die years early from oppression. It doesn’t always take a weaponized car. Oppression is deadly.

We need to create the country that has been dreamed of, but never been reality. One where what is essential for health and hope is not miserly hoarded by some to hurt others, but instead where oppression is replaced by wellbeing and justice.

We have a long way to go. As a white middle-class woman, I have a long way to go. And none of us will get there if we respond episodically to the horrors of a murder and not constantly to the pervasive horrors of intimidation and racism.

FFI is growing and we are looking for our next passionate team member to join us in a new position as Senior Manager, Training and Capacity Building. This person will co-design, develop strategy for, and co-lead implementation of FFI’s work to build the capacity of public systems and private nonprofit organizations to orient around wellbeing. This position is a part of our Training and Capacity Building team and will play an integral role in supporting our current partners, developing new relationships with potential partners and building the capacity of our partners to integrate the Five Domains of Wellbeing into their culture, policy, structure and practice. Learn more about this opportunity!

On the 4th of July this year the United States celebrated its 241st year of independence from the British Commonwealth. For some communities in the United States this “birthday” celebration is an annual (sometimes painful) reminder that people have been resisting subjugation and fighting for freedom since colonizers arrived in the Americas. Independence Day in the United States is also a reminder to some individuals that there is a profound difference between the ideals of freedom and equity, which are central components of the American Dream, and their lived experience.

The Ford Foundation has been “talking and thinking a lot about how inequality affects our ability to achieve the fabled American Dream: the idea that if you work hard and play by the rules then you should be able to get ahead.” The American Dream is a fable for some populations of people in the United States, particularly Native Americans and Black people, because no amount of hard work has ever been enough and the rules for upward mobility have changed constantly. In effort to “jump-start honest discussions about the role of inequality and opportunity in our lives,” the Ford Foundation, in partnership with Moving Up, developed a “tool that aims to help us examine the many experiences, systems, and institutions that have helped—or hindered—our path to where we are today.” Moving Up is an initiative “based on the premise that if we want to engage people on the issues like poverty, inequality and opportunity, then we must find new ways to bring them into the conversation.” Based on a series of questions about who you are, your parents, where you grew up, your childhood, your health, your education, your luck, your friends, your use and access to public services, your character and your effort, the tool, a calculator of the aforementioned factors, produces an American Dream Score.

My American Dream Score is 74/100. The message with my score stated that, “while hard work contributes to success, each of us have encountered different people, experiences, systems, and services that have helped or hindered our efforts. Your score of 74 means you’ve had some factors working for you, but more that you’ve had to work to overcome.” As for how my score compared to the range of scores, a score of 53 or less means that “nearly every factor has been working in your favor. If your score is 54-65 then the majority of factors have been in your favor. If your score is 66-79 then you’ve had more working against you than for you. If your score is 80 or higher then almost every factor has been working against you.”

The tool identified factors that helped me “move up,” including that I was “able to tap into a strong social network, grew up in place great for raising kids;” had “access to a good education;” was “bless[ed] by some good fortune;” and “benefited from public goods and services.” I have a lot of questions about the evidence and validity of the algorithm the tool is predicated on. Despite my questions, one of the factors in the calculation, “where you grew up,” included reference to research by Raj Chetty and his Equality of Opportunity Project. This factor is of particular interest to me as a student of the relationship between physical space and power. Chetty “has identified five factors that are correlated to neighborhoods that promote upward mobility: two parent households, good schools, high social capital, and low segregation and inequity.” Patriots fighting in the American War of Independence understood that freedom is linked to land. That link has not changed, which is why neighborhood (i.e., residential location) matters. In a blog I wrote earlier this year, Marching Peacefully Towards Being More Separate and More Unequal?, I discusses the importance of understanding how individual decisions about residential location affects inequality.

The tool also identified the factors I worked to overcome as: “the economy wasn’t as strong when you entered the job market, needed to develop strong character traits to cope, your parents may have struggled to give you all you needed, had to deal with some tough things as a kid, experienced some health issues, had to work harder than most, some may have held your race against you, you were more likely to be discriminated against based on gender.” The authors state that the calculator does not weigh any one factor more than the other and argue that “while research generally shows that some factors correlate more to success than others, that doesn’t mean they were more important to you personally.” While there are likely others, a critical factor not accounted for in the calculation is the ability for one to be able to be one’s authentic self as a (im)mobility factor. Equity cannot be achieved without inclusivity; inclusivity cannot be achieved without authenticity. Being able to be one’s authentic self is not a factor one can work to overcome. What one often does is suppress their authentic self after considering the tradeoffs (i.e. weighing the cost and benefits) of being one’s authentic self. I am constantly making decisions about where and how to show up in places and spaces. Sometimes I choose to show up just as Dr. Green, which pays into the politic of credential capital, and sometimes I show up as La Tonya, which to some immediately signals that I am a Black woman possibly with a certain political leaning. While this suppression of authentic self is probably not a mental or spiritual tax individuals in the dominant culture and/or in certain contexts pay, suppressing my authentic self is a strategy I employ often as I try determine how to live free; being upwardly mobile and pursuing the American Dream is a luxury until equity is achieved.

Advancing equity requires understanding how power is distributed and maintained; it also requires addressing the impact of power inequities. Equity is one part of economic, political, racial, and social justice. The United States has never had equity and we do not have a shared vision of concrete outcomes. In order to create a shared vision we must be willing to talk openly not only about race–including having honest dialogue about attitudes, culture, false and singular narratives, policies, practices, and procedures that reinforce differential outcomes or fail to eliminate them–but also how all individuals can participate and prosper in this country to the best of their ability regardless of ability, economic class, geographic location, gender, sexual orientation, etc. Advancing equity is not a destination, a fable, or a dream. We can create a fair inclusion country, and world, where we can truly live our dreams. In order to build that society, we must be willing to both share our individual and collective stories authentically and to listen deeply to each other’s individual and collective stories without gaslighting, the doubting or questioning of one’s experience, memory, or perception. If you are uncertain exactly where to begin, begin with the Chasing the Dream: Poverty and Opportunity in America website; you can utilize the tool, post your score, share your story, and read other people’s story. Utilizing our individual American Dream Score could be a provocative (or safe) jumping-off point or subject matter to continue to have honest conversations about the role of inequality and opportunity in our lives and communities.

La Tonya Green, PhD is FFI’s Director of Evidence and Knowledge. She is responsible for generating knowledge and evidence about the applicability and effectiveness of the Full Frame Approach and the Five Domains of Wellbeing. La Tonya is heading up FFI’s race and equity initiatives.

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Nine years ago, the Full Frame Initiative (FFI) was founded out of hope for what could beand frustration about what is. To this day, we stay centered on a central question: what if our service systems … Read More...

Statement on Equity and Social Justice

We believe equity and social justice are necessary for wellbeing--the needs and experiences required for health and hope. People experience barriers to wellbeing based on race, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic class, and other identities. In particular, racism is a key part of what keeps inequity alive in the United States. We believe that increasing access to wellbeing is necessary to end racism and advance racial equity. We are committed to addressing issues of racial and social equity in all our work.